New man succeeds jailed coroner

Geoff Fell wants to be accessible by the community

A new coroner has been appointed in North Yorkshire to succeed Jeremy Cave who is serving a jail sentence for stealing money from dead clients.

Geoff Fell will be responsible for the Selby, Harrogate, Craven and Richmondshire areas and will be based in Northallerton.

Cave, who was a solicitor in Thirsk, was found guilty in February of overcharging by £155,000 when dealing with the estates of six dead clients.

The former coroner is serving a 42 month prison sentence.

Local government

Mr Fell will deal with about 1,0000 unexpected or violent deaths a year as well as conducting inquiries into finds of treasure.

He has been a qualified solicitor for 15 years with most of his career in local government.

Before qualifying as a solicitor he worked as an engineer.

Mr Fell said: "I'm naturally very pleased about the appointment.

"One of my aims will be to make the coroner more accessible and visible in the community."